The Arts

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, March 19, 2005

Anyone who lives, works or has any past or present connection to the Branchville area of Ridgefield/Wilton is invited be in a group photograph being taken today at 2 p.m. at Branchville Gallery, 14 W. Branchville Road, Ridgefield.
The photo will be used as an invitation for an exhibit titled "What's Branchville?", which will feature photos, paintings, prints and Web art by local artists.
Call (203) 544-8332 for more information.

Music
The Beach Boys will perform Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Warner Theatre, 68 Main St., Torrington.
The band's 30 years of chart-topping hits include "Surfin' USA," "Fun, Fun, Fun," "I Get Around," "California Girls," and "Help Me Rhonda."
Tickets are $49.50 or $59.50; call (860) 489-7180 or visit www.warnertheatre.org.

James Pegolotti, The News-Times' music correspondent, will present a series of three free programs titled "From Vaudeville to 'Kiss Me Kate' in Three Easy Lessons" beginning Tuesday from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. at Danbury Music Centre, 256 Main St., Danbury.
Through commentary, video clips and piano selections, Pegolotti will provide an overview of the emergence of the Broadway musical from the 1920s to 1950. Musical selections will be by composers Lehar, Herbert, Gershwin, Rodgers, Hammerstein, Hart, Kern, Porter and Fields.
Each program will break at 12:55 for those who need to return to work and will resume again at 1 p.m.
The remaining dates are March 29 and April 5. Call (203) 748-1716 for more information.

The second annual Black Rock Blues Festival will take place Friday and Saturday at various times and locations throughout Bridgeport.
There will be concerts, workshops, a brunch, and a ribs cook-off.
The highlight of the festival will be concerts by James Cotton on Saturday at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. in the Black Rock Art Center, 2838 Fairfield Ave., Bridgeport.
Tickets for the James Cotton concert are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Call (203) 367-7917 or visit www. InternationalPerformingArts.com for more details.

"Festival Brass," the second offering in the Music at the Bruce: Young People's Concert series, is today at 2 p.m. at the Bruce Museum of Arts and Science, 1 Museum Drive, Greenwich.
"Instrument Exploration" is the theme of this year's series, designed for children age 6 and older and their parents or guardians.
In "Festival Brass" Broadway musicians will introduce the brass family through music from Bach to the Beatles.
Tickets are $3 per person; call (203) 869-0376 for reservations.

Visual arts
A memorial exhibit for Connecticut artist Cleve Gray opens Thursday at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 600 Main St., Hartford.
The late Gray is known for large abstract canvases.
The show runs through April 17, open Wednesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the first Thursday of each month until 8 p.m.
Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors age 62 and older, $5 for students ages 13 through college, free for children 12 and under. Call (860) 278-2670 for more information.

An exhibit of paintings and prints by Nancy Lasar will run through April 11 at New Arts Gallery, 513 Maple St., Litchfield.
Lasar's newest art continues her exploration of line and space with works on both paper and canvas.
Gallery hours are Tuesdays through Mondays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call (860) 567-5015 or visit www.newartsgallery.com for more information.

An exhibit titled "Awakenings" runs through April 14 at the Outsiders art/Gingras Studios, 131 Kent Road, Cornwall Bridge.
The show features Rusty Brockman's abstract oils, John Waiveris' photos, Nancy Valelly's paintings, Jeffrey Stark's impressionist works, Thornton Dial's large oil paintings and works on paper, and Dana Gingras' metal sculpture and hand-blown glass.
Gallery hours are Thursdays through Mondays from noon to 5 p.m. Call (860) 672-6631 for more information.

"Jerry Garcia/A Visual Journey," a nationally touring exhibit featuring one of the largest collections of Jerry Garcia's art ever assembled for public display, can be seen today from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Holiday Inn, 542 Route 9, Fishkill, N.Y.
Prior to becoming lead guitarist and vocalist for the Grateful Dead, Garcia attended the San Francisco Art Institute. His artistic styles include realism, surrealism and geometric abstraction.
All artwork is for sale. Admission is free. Call (845) 896-6281 for directions or information.

The Institute for American Indian Studies at 38 Curtis Road, Washington, Conn., is featuring two exhibits.
"�'With Beauty All Around Me, I Walk': The Art of Native American Body Ornamentation" runs through June 30.
It features necklaces, hairpins, headdresses, belts and pouches made with stone, bone, shell, quills, metal and glass.
"Inuit Artists-Inuit Hunters: Arctic Stories in Ivory, Bone and Stone" runs through Sept. 30.
It features Inuit sculptures of dog sleds, dancing bears and basking seals carved from walrus ivory, soapstone, whalebone and musk ox horn.
Museum hours are Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is $4 for adults, $3.50 for seniors, $2 for children ages 5 to 16. Call (860) 868-1649 for more information.

"Mystical Themes and Soul Portraits," an exhibit of paintings by Elyse Sgandurra, runs through April 11 at Arcadia Coffee Co., 20 Arcadia Road, Old Greenwich.
The show features a 30-year retrospective that includes nudes painted by the artist when she was 18, recent paintings with mystical themes, and pieces the artist calls "soul portraits."
There will be a reception for Sgandurra tonight at 7.
Regular gallery hours are Mondays through Sundays from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call (203) 637-8766 or visit www.arcadiacoffee.com for more information.
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The New Canaan Society for the Arts is seeking entries for its annual juried art exhibit "Spectrum," which will open April 17 at the Carriage Barn Arts Center at Waveny Park, off South Avenue, New Canaan.
The exhibit is open to artists in all media except photography. There is a limit of two works per person, completed within the last two years and not previously exhibited at the Carriage Barn Arts Center. The receiving date is April 5.
The juror is Douglas K.S. Hyland, director of the New Britain Museum of American Art. The fee is $20 for one entry, $35 for two. Call (203) 972-7895 for other details.

Theater
Yale School of Drama production of "Hedda Gabler" by Henrik Ibsen opens Saturday at 8 p.m. in the University Theatre, 222 York St., New Haven.
Ibsen's classic tale is about a lovely young newlywed embarking on the trapped life of a bourgeois wife in the Norway of yesteryear.
Performances are Saturday, March 29, 30 and 31, and April 1 at 8 p.m.; and April 2 at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $15 to $18, $12 to $14.50 for students, with some discounts available; call (203) 432-1234.

Stamford Center for the Arts will continue its Monday Night Musical Series with a concert-style reading of "The UnCommon Cold," a new rock musical featuring book, music and lyrics by Forrest Stone, this Monday at 7:30 p.m. in Rich Forum, 307 Atlantic St., Stamford.
"The UnCommon Cold" is a full-length musical drama about two men and a woman who were in a rock band together when they were young. Now, half a lifetime later, they revisit their youthful hopes and confront the emotional conflicts that tore them apart. There are many Connecticut references.
Admission is free, but a $15 tax-deductible donation is suggested. Call (203) 325-4466 or visit www.onlyatsca.com for more information.

Poetry
A. David Cappella will be the guest at Wednesday Night Poetry this Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Bethel Arts Junction, Depot Place, Bethel.
Admission is $1 to help defray expenses. Call Faith at (203) 426-3388.

"Sunday Afternoons of Coffee and Poetry" continues with poet Eric Zork Alan today from 3 to 6 p.m. at Arcadia Coffee, 20 Arcadia Road, Old Greenwich.
Zork Allan is the author of "Stolen Snapshots: I am NOT a Poet." He has created a repertoire of quirky, sexy, sappy and highly illustrated performance poetry aimed at people who hate poetry yet have some poems hidden inside themselves.
Call (203) 637-8766 or visit www.ArcadiaCoffee.com for more information.

Classes and talks
The Candlewood League of Artists will present a free acrylic landscape demonstration by Anda Styler on Monday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at New Fairfield Library, Route 39, New Fairfield.
Styler is known for acrylic New England scenes depicting billowing clouds, sunlit barns, Victorian homes, lush gardens and fields of colorful flowers.
Call (203) 746-7526 for more information.

"Fashion of the Times," the fifth annual History Bites free lunchtime lecture series, will begin Thursday at noon in the Church of the Nativity Hall, East Street, Bethlehem, with a lecture titled "Hats On, Hats Off."
Costume historian Joan DeGusto will trace the use of hats by men and women from 1790 to 1900.
Beverages and dessert will be provided. Suggested donation is $2. Call (203) 266-5188 for more information.

Jessica Hough, curator of Branchville Gallery's current exhibit "Equally Vulnerable," will lead an informal discussion with artists Adam Brent and Andrea Cohen today at 3 p.m. at the gallery, 14 W. Branchville Road, Ridgefield.
The session will give insight into the exhibit's title. Brent uses houseplants in his sculptures and Cohen creates sculptures of Styrofoam.
Light refreshments will be served. Call (203) 544-8332 for more information.

The first of three professional basics workshops titled "Collections Care: Framed Objects, Photographs and Furniture" will take place Monday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Keeney Center of Wethersfield Historical Society, 150 Main St., Wethersfield.

It is sponsored by the Connecticut League of History Organizations and will be led by Michael Moore of the National Archives and Records Administration, Michael Shortell of Shortell Framing, and Ann Smith of the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury.

The care, handling and exhibition of prints, watercolors, oils photographs and textiles becomes more complicated when these items are framed. The workshop will feature in-depth discussions of the concerns that surround framed objects.

An April 4 workshop will deal with photographs, while furniture will be the subject April 18. The fee of $50 per workshop includes lunch and instructional materials.